Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to tackle hate crime on public transport.

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime are unacceptable. The Government’s Hate Crime Action Plan 2016, and the refresh in 2018, contains a number of commitments to tackle hate crime on public transport. These include:

• The Department for Transport committing, in the July 2018 Inclusive Transport Strategy, to run a public awareness raising campaign to increase disability awareness amongst all transport passengers; and
• Working with local transport providers to ensure that bus drivers across England and Wales are fully equipped to challenge hate, including new guidance to support them.

The 2018 Hate Crime Action Plan refresh also includes a number of broader actions addressing all forms of hate crime, including hate crime on public transport. These include:

• A review by the Law Commission into the coverage and approach of current hate crime legislation; and
• A wide-ranging national hate crime communications campaign to publicly address hate crime and make clear that it is unacceptable to target people on the basis of their identity.

More widely, the British Transport Police (BTP) provides a policing service that meets the needs of all passengers and people who use or work on the railways. BTP has a firm commitment to responding to all reports of hate crime and it actively works with train operating companies and Network Rail to improve awareness, vigilance and reporting of information on hate crime incidents.